Description

1.1 Introduction

Medicinal plants constitute immense amount of raw materials for the synthesis of medicines, cosmetics and perfumes. In modern times plant derived natural products have been isolated for drug discovery and development. In the present scenario, research on plant materials for their therapeutic value is growing exponentially due to its lesser side effects compared to other systems of medicines (Nasim et al., 2022). In most references, chemical constituents of plant origin are subdivided into three classes: alkaloids, terpenoids and phenolics. They possess wide range of pharmacological properties (Elshafie et al., 2023).

The phenolic compounds are the chemical compounds which possess one or more hydroxyl substitutents bonded to an aromatic ring. It is widely found in plant food. Among the natural phenolic compounds, of which several thousand structures are known and are classified according tho their structure (Lin et al., 2016). The flavonoids form the largest group compared to other groups such as simple monocyclic phenols, phenylpropanoids and phenolic quinines all exist in considerable numbers. The plant phenols have the ability to complex with protein through hydrogen bonding became a considerable nuisance to rhe plant biochemist. While the functions of some classes of phenolic compound are well known, but the role other classes is still a matter of speculation. Jasminum is a genus belongs to the family Oleaceae, which includes flowering climbing shrubs and vines (Kumar et al., 2023). The genus Jasminum consists of over 2000 plants distributed all over the world. They are native to Eurasia India and Mediterranean regions. Of which 16 taxa are endemic to India and the genus is represented by 47 species 3 subspecies and 4 varieties. They are mainly reported from Deccan Penisula, Eastern and Western Himalayas and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 20 species are reported from flora of Presidency Madras (Tharakan, 2021).